Never say never

You are probably thinking that I’m about to go into some life-affirming explanation. Nope, this isn’t that heavy.

It’sbecauseIwenttoseetheJustinBieber3Dmoviecalled NeverSayNeveryesterday. (Okay, I’m just slightly embarrassed and a bit worried my AARP card is going to get revoked.)

Exhibit A.

The thing is, I love music. All sorts of genres. ( I even dabbled in artist management a while back.) The reviews for the film were pretty decent, so I decided to check it out for myself.

This is what I took away:

a. Admission was $15. A new personal movie-going high for me. And I spent it on a 16-year-old kid’s biopic. Ouch…and ouch. (If anyone ever asks me, what’s the most I’ve paid for a movie, I’m going to say it was for an IMAX screening of a National Geographic expedition on the mating call of Antarctic penguins.)

b. I’m old enough to be his grandmother. In fact, his grandmother may be younger than me. (Depressing. Baby, baby, baby, oh.) Just for that reason alone, I feel I should have gotten a senior discount.

c. Social media is everything. Especially if you are in the music business. (His mom posted a video of him performing several years ago to share with friends/relatives. Strangers starting viewing and the dominos started to fall.)

d. I wasn’t prepared to like him as much as I did.

Regardless, of your taste in music, a good rags-to-riches story tends to tug at the heart. Justin Bieber was born to a teenage (17-year-old) mother who made raising this child a priority. We also see the grandparents who have been like surrogate parents to him all of his life.

Concert footage of his recent performance at Madison Square Garden is interspersed with family/historical footage of his rise to fame.

The moral of this story is that a ton of hard work (which he has definitely put in), the love of a supporting family, mixed in with a little right place/right stuff is what dreams are made of.

In retrospect, I guess I have to say it was $15 well spent. But, in case anyone asks…I’m still sticking with the penguin movie story.

Sophia – love this posting! Annika, my daughter who is 15, adores Justin but we have yet to see the movie. We were in LA last weekend for a youth conference and there were billboards everywhere promoting NeverSayNever. Annika took photos of the billboard and had us driving all over Beverly Hills in case we could spot Justin. I saw my friend Stacy who drove up from San Diego and she loves your blogs. Keep up the great work! You have the “gift of gab”!